What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it's the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

Right, Get Going. Casual bit of law-breaking with some Doom music present in a Doom II map set, but we're all used to that these days. Very small map that I maxed in 1:29 without really trying too hard or taking any damage. I already remember where I'll be seeing that area again.

...And Punchline. The law remains broken in this E1-esque affair. Pretty standard berserk encounter with the Demons and some handy barrel placement meant that the resistance was still effectively non-existent. The map length is very appreciated at the moment, although a little more bite will be welcome when it turns up later on.

Yep, I think I'll join in. Scythe is one of my favorite megawads, but I'm going to play it with a gun mod known as DoomStorm in order to keep the experience as fresh as possible. The difficulty will be on UltraViolence just for the extra holy-shit-hard factor.

Let's begin, shall we?

Map01: Get Going

You're damn straight I'll get going!

Death Count: 0

Map01, no matter how many times I play it, is always the same introductory experience, and it keeps being fun all the same. Being able to Swiss-cheese a bunch of former humans and Imps with DoomStorm's Peace Maker Rifle made it all the more so; a fresh and invigorating beginning indeed!

The only part I actually lost a lot of health at was when I entered the second building (the one guarded by the red door), and I took some bullets from former humans that were above me. After I knocked them out, it was smooth sailing the rest of the map.

Some Things I Noticed:

1) That's no secret! The chainsaw secret (the Extended Clip for the Peace Maker, in my case) isn't much of a secret; in fact, you can pretty much see it if you move from your spawn location. No biggie, though.

Map02: Punchline

Well, where is it?

Death Count: 2

This map jumped up a little in the difficulty, and by a little, I mean quite a bit. Still no shotgun (or Screamer Revolver) that I could find...

Some Things I Noticed:

1) ERROR M3: I FORGOT TO RESURRECT. PRESS Y TO FACEPALM. On my first death, I didn't resurrect, making me start the map over. Enough said here.

2) That secret...how to reach it? The invisibility sphere secret was an irritant for a while until I finally figured out how to get to it, which led me to get a faceful of Pinky Demon.

So Scythe it is then. Although I prefer the sequel, this original one is a fun wad in itself as well. I'll be playing on UV, pistol starts and no savespamming.

Map01: Get Going

Not much to say really, took me a total 43 seconds to finish with 100s in everything. I just mindlessly chainsawed everything and I dropped down to 1 health with three zombiemen in the room at one point so it's a bit of a miracle that I didn't already die heh. Aesthetically it's a standard one as well, nothing too fancy but still pleasant looking.

Map02: Punchline

From chainsaw only to berserk only. Well not really actually, the two zombiemen on the ledge I killed with the pistol. Since I absolutely hate chainsaw gameplay and love me some berserk action, this is a very welcome change. Again, my mindless playing caused me some health issues but a little less so compared to the previous map.

Ah, Scythe. One of my favorite megawads... I love how the maps are relatively short, but take a nice ramp in difficulty from "really, only 20 monsters on this level?" to "holy shit this is ridiculous." I never did finish MAP30. I remember finishing MAP28 but after trying to do so again right now I'm not sure how.

MAP01: Get Going
100% kills, 1/1 "secret"

Quick and easy affair with a chainsaw provided from the get-go, even though the pistol is by far the safer option. But that's lame! So I dive in and just try to rip everything to shreds with the chainsaw, and actually die because I accidently run into a barrel. Oops. Playing even just slightly more careful makes things pretty easy, though. I, for one, enjoy having the old Doom music back.

MAP02: Punchline
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Another quick and easy affair, except this time with the berserk taking center stage instead of the chainsaw. This map actually has secrets, so I like it a bit more than the first one. So far the aesthetic has been nice, fairly classic-seeming, simple but nice looking (such as the detail with the lights) without being overly ornate or an ugly mish-mash of textures. And classic Doom music always helps.

Okay then, Scythe. It's been quite a while since I last played this. Nothing against it, mind--most of it is decent or better, a bit of it's great--but I tend to prefer more substantial maps over the little bite-sized chunklets featured here, and so it often takes me some time to come back to WADs in this vein. Nevertheless, I feel like I remember its first episode fairly well, and its third episode to a tee....but E2 is kind of a void where I'm drawing a real blank, so it'll be fun to rediscover it (I hope).

As per usual, I'll be playing on UV, pistol-starts, no infinitely-tall actors. All but maybe 2-3 maps in Scythe are quite short, so there should be almost no call for savegames (not that I tend to use them, anyway).

Map 01 -- Get Going - 100% Kills / No actual secrets
Ah yes, the old chainsaw-start. The handgun is really a much more rational/efficient choice here, given the little patrols of zombies and the somewhat frequent appearance of explosive barrels....but the chainsaw's a lot more fun, so I used it exclusively, finishing in about 45 seconds. Practically blew my own arm off chainsawing a barrel at one point....on purpose in my case, because that's just 'how I roll', as the youths say. The map's visual theme is a bit silly--I call it the 'cinderblock rainbow'--but not unappealing for all that, it goes nicely with the Phobos sky.

Map 02 -- Punchline - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
And now we promptly see the introduction of Mr. Alm's favorite item in all of DooM, the berserk pack. As with the chainsaw in map 01, for the most part you don't really have to use it if you don't want to--between the half-clips from dead zombies and the conveniently-placed barrels, there's probably enough to get by on using the handgun instead (perhaps with a touch of pinky-fisting at the very end)--but again, it's a lot more entertaining to unleash the power of the little black box, particularly given the opportunities to perform barrel-Hadokens and other pointlessly flashy maneuvers on the hapless groups of smallfry populating the facility. Speaking of, this is a nice, tidy little green metal/cement nukage-base, quite representative of Erik's usual handling of techbase settings (that is, nice, tidy, and efficient) in most of his work. His characteristic 'Dr. Sleep-Plus' lights are also more evident here...some folks don't like the effect, but I think it works well enough, given a setting where the default light level is pretty neutral (as it is here), as opposed to generally dark or generally well-lit.

Map 03 -- Up and Around - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Huh....this is a Scythe map? I remember this (well, mostly), but for some reason thought it came from some other mapset. Ah, well, nevermind. Again, this is short and efficient, and plays out either as relatively ammo-tight if you don't get/don't want to use the berserk pack, preferring the shotgun instead, or as a 'corridor-fister', if you're up for more melee. Took me a minute to remember how to actually get the berserk pack, and so I used the shotgun more than I otherwise would have. In honesty, I think this one is a little too small for its own good, the action here generally feels somewhat inelegant and a bit paltry, with the best part being a brief round of shotgunning (or punching) the teleporting imps out of the darkroom window. It doesn't look as nice as the previous map, either...the main yard looks cluttered and stuffy somehow (probably the tech-pillars), and the chunky keystripe bars contrast poorly with what is otherwise a fairly palatable texture selection, which uses two of my favorite brick textures (the little green DooM II bricks and the mossy gray granite blocks from the original game). Alas, can't win 'em all.

Well, I never properly played through Scythe, I think I only once started MAP01 (maybe other maps) to get a look, and probably didn't even finish it. I heard a little about this megawad, but honestly can't really imagine what awaits me.

I chose to be playing Scythe continuously (as far as the game allows), and on UV. I foresee I might regret it later, but in the worst case, I'll be lowering the skill level for E3, or use a save-load spam.

MAP01 - Get Going

Wow, nice in its simplicity. The chainsaw would deserve to be put in an actual secret, in my opinion. A few places in the map I'd call to be cramped, I don't have any reason to complain though. At one moment I was afraid that the silver bars won't let me pass again after I jumped from the building's window before getting red key, obviously turned out to be false worry. Pleasurable play, and without a shotgun!

I confess I didn't even grab the berserk and got along with the chainsaw from the previous level. It was nice to have it. I used the pistol just a little, mostly to blow up barrels. Great element the barrels were. Once again I felt that this map is not made to kill or tease anybody, but to provide an enjoyable play. I don't think I dropped below 90% health (though can't remember really), even though I didn't pay much attention to all the zombiemen roaming around. The great thing about these small maps is that navigation is easy. I've spent just a couple minutes in the map, haven't seen the map anytime before (I think), but now I can still imagine it's structure and all important landmarks. Such an easy-to-learn layout. I like the aesthetics too. Feels like a place from Knee Deep, specially with the music. But why I'm mentioning it, it's so self-evident. :)

MAP03 - "Up and Around"

Finally some sergeants, and shotguns! But the difficulty remained very low, my lowest health was I think 88%. I like the fact that this map and its architecture makes sense, you can imagine it as part of a real base, serving some purpose. Well, sort of. I also like how it eventually unfolds when all bars are raised.

I have to admit this map got me with its secret. In all the previous maps I acquired 100% secrets, and so I wanted here. I refused to exit the map until I find out a way to that berserk. But even after 20 minutes of pressing and chainsawing every possible wall, I couldn't find how to lower the platform. I eventually watched someone's Youtube walkthrough video and found out the required trick is to jump out of a window. The problem is - the window, for me, was closed. How?!?!? It just closed, automap showed double-sided linedefs in its place, but no window was there and I couldn't open it, so I had to give up.

Well, DoomStorm probably made that a -little- harder than it should have been on UV (mainly because I kept getting shredded by close-range former humans), but besides that, this was a fun little romp through a fun little map. Finally got a Screamer Revolver and even the Boneduster Shotgun (replacement of the SSG).

Some Things I Noticed:

1) Who turned out the lights? When I first grabbed the yellow keycard, the first thing I noticed was that the spawner area nearby had gone pitch-black save for the lights from the teleporters. Nonetheless, let's say the hard-to-see Imps proceeded to hand to me the first death of 3.

2) Frustration, anyone? When I was flipping the switch to lower the platform for the blue keycard, I was immediately faced (or rather, had my back to) some former humans that teleported in and proceeded to give me an ass-beating not once, but twice. That's not my cup of tea. Ambushes...grumble grumble grumble.

Well, I've now been Up and Around. Secret berserk was an easy find and the shotgun matched the additional threat the shotgunners posed comfortably. Health is fairly abundant and the monster blocking in the yellow key room trivialised the only potentially dangerous fight. I do enjoy D_E1M9, so that was welcome.

I might get into this. I remember playing the first couple maps awhile back and wondering what all the fuss was about, but I trust the Doom Community on this one. If they say I'll get my face ripped off, my face will most assuredly be peeled back in wonderful spouts of fountaining gore. Of course, I can always pistol-start a really horrific map at HNTR if need be.

More punching, hooray! And a shotgun, which is actually accessible right away with some acrobatic maneuvers or bumping into the pedestal. I took the acrobatics route with success just to make an easy map even easier. Breaking the intended route is just so tempting... The berserk secret was actually a bit of a mystery for me and triggering it was purely accidental on my part. I'll take it though and something new was learnt so I'd call it a successfull day at the office.

Whee! Scythe! Hopefully I won't mispronounce it "skith" this time around. Time to get going I guess. HMP, double ammo, continuous play, not like it matters. I know MAP26 is gonna be easy, either that or I'm high again.

MAP01 Get Going My Time: 1:12

Not much to say really, it's one of the few MAP01's I can handpick from a screenshot. Combat limits to just pistol and chainsaw, with only imps and zombiemen in a small number. Typical, to say the least, and not any difficult gameplay wise. But be careful and don't try to accidentally chainsaw a barrel if you want to go chainsaw crazy.

MAP02 Punchline My Time: 1:22

Didn't really use the pistol in this one, difficulty still pretty easy and berserk-filled action abounds. Nothing else.

MAP03 Up And Around My Time: 2:55

So here's where the shotgun and shotgun guys come in. I guess it's a good move to delay them as they're quite sparingly used. I tried to do what Veinen did to get the open shotgun but that failed so I pressed the switch instead. Needless to say, I'm glad the berserk secret wasn't as hard as I originally thought. Also, the chainsaw was somehow effective on the teleporting shotgun guys at one point.

MAP04 Lost Warehouse My Time: 2:05

Pretty cool lighting, not much in the warehouse. I refrained from shotgun usage and mostly used the chainsaw for the entire level; turns out it was actually not a bad idea!

Given how short these levels are, maybe I should be trying to go for time instead. Heh. This one's another shorty, and pretty easy as long as you just grab the shotgun at the start instead of trying to run around and fight everything at once. I was too dumb to find the berserk secret.

MAP04: Lost Warehouse
100% kills, 2/2 "secrets"

Unlike the first three, which are short but built around one weapon, this one just feels like a chunk of a larger map. The two "secrets" are about as secret as the chainsaw on MAP01, and there's nothing really noteworthy about this map at all.

Feels like I should write about the maps that I play, so here goes. UV but with continuous play and save states. I've never gone past the first episode in Scythe, so I'm looking forward to it.

Map 01
Get Going

This may be one of my favorite Map 01s. It's just so punchy. The lighting certainly isn't subtle, but I like the dark blue tunnel to the switch (with hidden imp for good measure), and the use of teleporting imps right off the bat really sets the tone for the wad. It's a small thing but I like how he used height early on to really maximize the small space. I rushed through it, used the chainsaw as much as possible, and took way more damage than was necessary. That's ok because from what I recall the first episode is pretty easy on continuous play.

Map 02
Punchline

Another small map, but I find the map pushes you towards the nukage rather than towards the yellow key room, so despite the small map size it feels longer than it really is (though still short). The major map setpiece is the pinky / spectre fight while berserking. I messed that one up and switched to the chainsaw for some reason, not sure why. I actually went down to about 5 health at one point, though there were enough health packs lying around to recover most of the way from that point, so it wasn't a big deal. The map had something of a no brainer secret, but it kind of reminds me of E1M2, so I liked that. Another small thing I liked was the barrel in the corridor with the yellow door. Very Romero-esque placement.

Map 03
Up and Around

Intro to shotgunners. As mentioned, you can get the shotgun right away, which I did. The level itself is pretty easy as a result. I liked the dark lighting in the area right off the key room, as well as the teleporting imps - it felt like a nod to E1M3. I wish they spawned in a more dangerous spot, the columns really prevent them being a danger and take the punch out of that fight. Again with the tone setting though; the message really is that every time you touch a switch or pick up an item / key, be ready for something coming in behind you. I didn't figure out the berserk secret, though I didn't take a lot of time trying. I'll go back to it at some point I guess.

Map 04
Lost Warehouse

Dark. Playing this with the actual doom lighting rather than the lighter gzdoom defaults I played on before makes such a difference - the spectres are actually something of a threat here. The level itself is pretty straightforward. Good use of height in the building that holds the red key, and I like that it does "baby's first intro to jumping in Doom". The fact the nukage areas have teleporters in them is another big plus for me. Inescapable death traps are one of my bugaboos with wads. The blue key area is kind of boring though, and the map ends really suddenly. I wanted it to be a bit longer.

...

These first few maps really feel like an introduction to Doom. A lot of megawads seem to depend pretty heavily on prior knowledge of Doom, but Scythe stands pretty well on its own so far. As I understand it, the wad ramps up quickly though, so I'm looking forward to that.

Super easy too. Although I admit that the beginning got me a bit worried, as I've heard hitscan humans in the pits around me. I didn't see them, but knew they would be able to hit me. Eventually jumping down and clearing the pit with my shotgun solved the problem quickly.

Darker nature of the level admittedly created for an atmosphere of increased menace. But the actual danger didn't come yet. Even those spectres, teleporting lost souls and hitscanners don't pose nearly any challenge - but I got a few hits and went to around 50% health as the bottom value. I play continuously, mind you. I have to say anyway, for now I'm enjoying the flow of these smallish levels. The aesthetics please my eyes too. I only don't get what's up with the secrets, I'd expect them to be hidden at least somehow.

Fuck it, might as well leave my incoherent ramblings here. This time I don't even have to do anything other than post shit!

MAP01: Get Going
Well it is what it is. A nice and easy introduction map which practically begs to just be Chainsaw'd through. If I could change one thing, it would be making the 'secret' an actual secret, instead of "HEY LOOK A CHAINSAW".

MAP02: Punchline
More melee fun. I wish more mapsets did this with early levels. Berserk really doesn't get enough time to shine if you ask me; it's so often placed in some map where it's either a bad idea to try punching things or dumped somewhere almost purely as a healing item. Or -- as we'll see later -- placed as some dickhead's idea of a joke.BONUS: You can see the fucking bullshit I frequently have to tolerate from the RNG. Partial Invisibility and those cunting Zombiemen still hit me. Fuck this game.

MAP03: Up And Around
There's really not much to say about this one, is there? Short, simple, and yet again it allows idiots like myself to wade in and start swinging, if so desired. Hurrah!

MAP04: Lost Warehouse
A temporary break from a focus on melee combat, and not a moment too soon. Again, there's really not much to say about this map. It ends a bit abruptly, although it's not really a bad thing. Without the temptation of Berserk looming over me, this one is something of a breather compared to the previous maps. Not that any of them have actually given me any trouble, but when you can just plug things with a Shotgun on maps this simple there's no risk to combat at all.

MAP05: Slimy Tunnels
Another excuse to go around punching things arises about halfway through, and it does not go to waste. Introduced here -- albeit right at the end -- is the Chaingun, a relatively under-appreciated weapon in the majority of Doom II PWADs because more often than not, SSG's are freely thrown around like so much confetti. Will the Chaingun get any use on the next map? Can't say, it's a surprise. As for the level itself, it's okay; there isn't anything to make it stand out for either good or bad reasons. Action's generally constant without taking cheap shots, although a certain trapped door might be a small issue if the RNG sets itself to 'bullshit' for the sole benefit of those Shotgun Guys.

Obviously enough, there's only so much you can write about when it comes to Scythe's first episode, because the maps are all small and straightforward. They could only pose a threat if the player suddenly went blind or lost all their fingers. That aside, it's an aesthetically pleasing experience with an easy learning curve ideal for anyone who's barely familiar with Doom, at least until it suddenly kicks you in the balls/punches you in the tits and stamps on your throat.

Holy fuck, that was awesome! And yes, I went in there at HNTR. Still got killed, Caco swarm the second time. Loved the look and the music. Not sure I'll ever be able to beat it, but it was a blast while it lasted. ;)

^^Map 28's the one that gives a lot of folks trouble (including me unless I remap my function keys), and it's got essentially nothing to do with combat.

Map 04 -- Lost Warehouse - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I rather like this one. Gameplay is as simple/easy as ever, perhaps even moreso than in previous maps, since there's a bit more of a 'standard' weapon progression/ammo balance at work here (that is, pistol-->shotgun-->chainsaw), although I suppose you could get the chainsaw early if you wanted to (I didn't simply because I had forgotten it was there). My only particular criticism is that I think the second key ambush would've been better with more barrels. The setting is very engaging, though; I like the opening shot, and all of the different views you can take across the floor of the main warehouse over into the special-handling storage where the key is found. The lighting choices quite suit my tastes, as it is characterized both by heavy gloom and high contrast--my two favorite things!--with the centerpiece being the strange flickering fluorescent post in the room with the locked doors. In terms of sectors, the effect here is a bit crude, and I could see someone finding it tacky as a result, but the flickering effect is synched well enough that I think it looks pretty neat.

Map 05 -- Slimy Tunnels - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Small even by Scythe's standards, this tiny little slimehole nevertheless offers some solid action, once again largely a function of effective placement of explosive barrels. You start running into more specters (and a demon or two) here than in previous maps, which slows down the pace a fair bit if you continue to insist on using conventional weaponry, but this can be easily mitigated by making use of the berserk pack freely available at about the halfway point--in a way, Alm seems to be suggesting to the player that s/he really ought to learn to use this item, and not for nothing--eventually, he's going to start periodically requiring you to rely on it for success (though that's a ways down the road at this point). On another note, the actual ooze aspect of this map is highly superfluous; given that the layout is so tiny in scale, the two freely-available radsuits on the opening platform provide more than enough protection time to see you through without damage. Bit of a jab at the end with the cacodemons, but easily handled with the chaingun one picks up 1.5 seconds before they appear.